A configuration shown in patent literature 1 is known as the basic configuration of a radio communication apparatus of, for example, is a mobile telephone. Thus, a radio section, that performs radio transmitting process and radio receiving process in a radio communication apparatus, is mainly formed by a radio IC (which is a high frequency modem and a unified AFE in patent literature 1). Basically, the control of a radio IC is all performed by a baseband IC (which is a DSP and CPU unified chip in patent literature 1).
Specifically, a baseband IC controls transmission/reception timing in a radio IC and a process of transmission/reception data, according to a communication scheme (for example, GSM and UMTS) applied to a radio communication apparatus.
After receiving control signals from a baseband IC, a radio IC converts these to control signals which respectively suit multiple function sections provided in a radio IC, and controls each function section using the acquired signals. This control process in a radio IC is controlled by a control section provided in a radio IC.
According to the above configuration, since a baseband IC controls all radio ICs, the number of types of control signals which are transmitted and received between a baseband IC and a radio IC increase, and as a result, the process between a baseband IC and a radio IC becomes complex. When the above radio communication apparatus has a configuration supports multiple communication schemes, the process between a baseband IC and a radio IC becomes further complex. Thus, control signal lines connected from a baseband IC to a radio IC need to be divided for each communication scheme. Thus, the numbers of LSI terminals is required to increase, so that the size of the LSI package becomes large, which makes it difficult to reduce the cost of a radio communication apparatus and the power consumption.
To suppress the amount of process between a baseband IC and a radio IC, as shown in patent literature 2, a second radio communication apparatus where a radio IC is independently controlled by software has been proposed. With the second radio communication apparatus, a radio IC has a control section having a sequencer function that enables individual control of a radio IC by switching software, and a memory that stores the software. In patent literature 2, the sequencer function is subject to “state machine controller” and the memory is subject to “storage unit.”
According to the configuration of the above second radio communication apparatus, a radio IC can be individually controlled by software, so that it is possible to simplify a control of a baseband IC to the radio IC, and to reduce the numbers of interfaces (that is, terminals) between a baseband IC and a radio IC.
A standardization (DigRF) has been promoted where with a standard of 2G/2.5G GSM terminal and a standard of 3G terminal, a baseband IC and a radio IC are connected by further reducing the numbers of signal lines and by realizing faster digital interface (LVDS). Here, a baseband IC and a radio IC are connected by eight signal lines for transmitting and receiving transmission/reception data and control signals, which realizes an efficient digital connection.